Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Brook

It was nice to spend the entire day with my mom. The little song and dance Hornet did with her really made a difference. Before, I didn’t think she believed she had any real power to change her life. Now, her attitude was completely different. She even made Herb pick the boys up from school and proceeded ignore his calls and texts for the rest of the day. I would have never even thought her capable of that kind of assertiveness.

For a few brief hours it was just like old times, only now we had a baby to contend with. We both looked down at her sleeping peacefully in her bassinet.

“Ariella Pemberton Davis is such a big name for such a tiny little girl,” my mother commented.

“I think it’s a pretty name. But we call her Ariel for short.”

“She’s so sweet and precious. Reminds me of you when you were a baby.”

That made me think about my little brothers I hadn’t seen in months. My heart ached to visit them, but I wasn’t about to start pressuring my mother about that just yet.

I heard the front door open and turned to see Hornet strolling into the room with his helmet tucked under his arm. “How’s the visit going, ladies?”

“Perfect,” my mother responded enthusiastically. “From now on, I plan to visit often, if that’s okay with you? I want to help Brook with the baby and spend some long overdue mother-daughter time together.”

Hornet’s face lit up. “That sounds amazing. You’re welcome in our home anytime.”

While I was trying to figure out how and when this had become our home, rather than just his, my mom commented, “You’re leaking red on the carpet.”

I rushed over to him and saw his knuckles were bleeding. “Oh my God, what happened? Did you have an accident on your bike?”

He froze for the briefest of seconds before putting his helmet down and glancing towards the kitchen. “Yeah. I’ll clean up. Sorry if I grossed you both out.”

“You didn’t gross us out. We’re just worried about you, what happened?”

He got this awkward look on his face, “I don’t want you to think I was interfering in your life again.”

“Is this to do with my accident?” I asked, because I couldn’t really think what else it might have been about. Unless— “Come on, I’ll help you get cleaned up and you can tell me all about how you busted your knuckles on Tate’s face.”

I saw the shock spread over his face. “Yeah, that’s about the size of it.”

My mother gasped. “You really hit someone?”

“Yeah. We need to talk. Give me a couple of minutes to clean up and I’ll explain.”

My mom and I sat while he washed up his cuts, I wanted to help him, but I figured with only one functional hand I’d be more of a hindrance, so I waited. He returned to the living room drying his hands with paper towels, which he bunched up and threw in the trash can.

I glanced at his knuckles, “Do they need any antiseptic ointment? I think there’s some cream in the bathroom, the doctors gave it to me for my superficial cuts.”

I rose to my feet, but he gestured for me to sit back down.

“Trust me when I say, it looks worse than it is. Let’s have a seat and talk.”

Once we were all sitting, he gave us an update.

“We visited your ex’s house. There wasn’t any trace of you there. No pictures, no mementos. We inspected his truck and found no evidence that would suggest an accident. I also took the liberty of going through his phone. There were no images saved or old text messages that linked back to you.”

“What you’re saying is that it wasn’t him,” I stated as I cradled my throbbing arm against my side.

He nodded. “Unless he hid his tracks, and after meeting that asshole I don’t think he has the intelligence to, I really don’t think it’s him. That leaves us with the next name on your list.”

I huffed out an exasperated breath. “I told you already that Herb had nothing to do with this.”

“What? Are you suggesting my husband might have tried to hurt Brook?” my mom exclaimed loud enough to wake the baby.

Hornet reached over, plucked his little one from the bassinet, and put her on his shoulder. She quieted down almost immediately. “Not necessarily. He’s just the only other person who has a negative history with Brook, so it makes sense to investigate him, if only to rule him out.”

“This whole situation is awful, but my husband would never do anything to harm Brook.”

Hornet asked, “Does he have a pickup truck? We believe it was a dark blue truck that sideswiped Brook.”

My mom frowned. “I can’t imagine Herb driving a pickup truck. He’s only ever driven his BMW.”

“That’s a point in his favor. See how easy this is going to be?”

My mother took a deep breath and tried to relax. “I’ll do whatever I can to help clear his name.”

“Do you know where he was the evening of the seventh? It was the Friday before last, and the accident happened around eight.”

“Herb normally works late on Fridays, so he doesn’t have to bring work home to do over the weekend. I can’t tell you the last time he made it home before nine p.m.”

“His office is nowhere near the site of my accident. That means even if he left early, he probably wouldn’t have been anywhere near,” I explained.

“All this information it’s looking good in terms of clearing him, but I’m gonna have to talk to him face to face.”

My mother looked like she was about to cry “You have no idea what a huge can of worms you’re opening. He’s going to be furious.”

“Begging your pardon, ma’am, but that’s not my problem. When it comes to trying to figure out who tried to kill the woman I love, no one on this planet is too precious to be asked to answer a few questions. It seems to me like unless your husband truly does bear some ill will towards her, he would be willing to help find the person responsible for her injuries.”

My mom sighed. “I’ll talk to him, try to get him to understand.”

“That’s great,” Hornet responded. “Let him know I don’t really give a shit how he feels about talking to me. He can either contact me and make arrangements, or I can show up at his place of business in front of all of his employees and force the issue.”

“I’m sure that won’t be necessary,” my mom said. “I want to know who did this to her as much as you do.”

All of a sudden, my mother stood up. “I suppose I should get home. God only knows how Herb is fairing with the boys. And I want to have a little talk with him myself about this situation. If I get the slightest inkling that he had anything to do with this, I’m leaving that man.”

I stood up and gave her a firm hug. “I’m sorry you’re getting pulled into my problems.”

“No. Your boyfriend is right, I’ve been a bad mother. I know when you left, we were going through a difficult time, and I didn’t see any way out. But once everything settled then I should have put my foot down and insisted that he let me see you, and that you see your brothers. You’re my daughter and I never should have allowed Herb to treat you the way he did. It’s about time I started making things right again.”

“Be careful Mom. If he did have anything to do with my accident then you don’t want to anger him.”

“We’ll see, dear. Now, let me get out of here and take care of business.”

Hornet stood up and gave her a warm hug as well. “You’re always welcome here if things go south when you broach this subject with him. No matter how it goes, I want to invite you over for dinner on Sunday. My parents will be here and I’m sure they would love to meet you. They adore Brook, so I’m pretty sure they will want to meet her mother.”

My mom’s worried expression brightened slightly. “I’ll be here. Do you think it would be too much to bring the boys?”

“Not at all. I’d love to meet Brook’s brothers.”

I watched from the sofa as Hornet walked my mother out. Normally, I’d walk her out myself, but I was suddenly feeling mentally and physically exhausted. After the latest news from Hornet, I was really feeling the stress of it all.

“How did you and Tate end up in a fistfight?” I asked Hornet when he got back to the living room and settled Ariel back in her bassinet.

Hornet gave me a weird look. “He was a bit of an ass, called you some names I didn’t appreciate. He can’t fight worth a shit, so it really wasn’t much of a fight.”

“Anything else I should know?”

He shrugged casually with one shoulder. “I may or may not have broken his arm in a very similar manner to the way he broke yours.”

My eyes widened in shock. “I should probably be horrified by that, and maybe it says something bad about me as a human being, but I’m not. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.”

Hornet smothered back a smile. “Maybe he’ll think twice before he hurts another woman.”

“I hope so too. God knows no woman deserves the kind of abuse he deals. He’s not going to press charges, is he?”

“Not if he knows what’s good for him. We found drugs at his place, so I doubt he’s gonna want the cops sniffing around. If we could stop talking about that ignorant fucker for the rest of the day, that would be fantastic.”

I could tell by the tone of Hornet’s voice that meeting up with my ex was more difficult for him than he probably thought it was going to be. “What do you think we should do for dinner.”

“Order out,” he replied. “You’re not in any condition to cook, and that’s the last thing I wanna do right now with fresh cuts on my hands.”

We spent the evening talking about all things not related to Tate, watching movies, and tending to the baby when she woke up. All those days in the hospital I dreamed about cozy evenings like this, just relaxing with the people I cared about. It turned out to be everything I thought it would be. When it got late, we climbed into bed tired but happy. Snuggling with Hornet was the best experience in the world. This man made me feel important and cherished with the way he helped me change into pajamas and was careful to hug me up to his chest in a way that didn’t cause my still healing body pain. I was starting to feel like I finally snagged a truly good man.